Giving Compass' Take:

• As more public health concerns have hit grocery stores, there may be more public safety measures regarding cross-contamination in the bulk aisles section.

•  Why should we pivot attention to managing grocery stores differently during COVID-19?

• Learn about what grocery workers need during COVID-19.  

Next time you’re visiting the grocery store to restock your pantry, pop into the bulk foods department. If it looks gutted, don’t be surprised. While grocery stores generally saw an uptick in sales last month, public health concerns have hit this section of the supermarket hard. Covid-19 is highly contagious and can persist on surfaces, after all. Is it any time to be self-serving dry goods from communal containers with our hands?

Fears over food safety and cross contamination are nothing new in the bulk section. Though the butcher counter and bakery department also sell foods “loose,” store employees act as intermediaries between unpackaged food and the consumer. Bulk is different: It is an entirely autonomous department, with little oversight to ensure folks aren’t digging through the granola with their bare hands.

Of course, we touch produce with our bare hands, too—but customers can theoretically go home to wash, and then cook, those items.  The ready-to-eat nature of many goods in bulk—commodities like granola, nuts, and trail mix—can sit in gravity dispensers or serving bins for weeks at a time, making the section, at this moment, particularly fraught.

In response to these concerns, many chain stores have already taken swift action. A spokesperson for Stop and Shop told The Counter it has eliminated all self-serve stations entirely. Others, like Whole Foods, are primarily targeting scoop bins (which are seen to pose the most risk for cross-contamination, as noted in my feature on the tech startups trying to re-envision bulk). Bulk Barn, a Canadian retailer that devotes a large portion of its floor space to scoop bins, now has a “customer care program” where employees wearing gloves will perform the scooping for customers—a solution that may reduce the threat of cross-contamination, but drastically increases the labor involved.

Read the full article about grocery store bulk aisle food by Talia Moore at The Counter.